Duke basketball's Cooper Flagg hype draws Anthony Davis vibes from insider

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The 2024-2025 college basketball season has tipped off, and one of the biggest stories in the sport is freshman Cooper Flagg’s arrival at the Duke basketball program, and Matt Norlander of CBS Sports indicated that there has not been this much hype for a freshman before the start of a season since Anthony Davis at Kentucky.

“Cooper Flagg is the headlining freshman,” Matt Norlander of CBS Sports said. “He enters in my estimation, the last time we had a freshman with this much hype and anticipation and proven bonafides as a high school player, was probably Anthony Davis. And some people might say, ‘what about Zion Williamson?’ Zion Williamson was ranked behind RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish on his own team and in his own freshman class. It was only after Duke’s season had begun that Zion mania really took hold. Cooper Flagg mania has already been a big thing.”

"The last time we had a freshman with this much hype and anticipation and proven bonafides as a high school player, was probably Anthony Davis."@MattNorlander on @DukeMBB freshman Cooper Flagg. pic.twitter.com/xaRfeJ9iVd

— CBS Sports College Basketball (@CBSSportsCBB) November 4, 2024

Cooper Flagg’s recruitment was a big event, and the expected outcome was pretty much always that he would end up playing for Duke basketball under Jon Scheyer, although UConn and Dan Hurley made a late push and came up short for the prized recruit. Now, Duke will begin its season on Monday night at home against Maine, where Flagg is from.

Can Jon Scheyer reach first Final Four with Cooper Flagg, Duke basketball?

Jon Scheyer has done an admirable job taking over for Mike Krzyzewski at the Duke basketball program. In his first year, he won the ACC tournament, but suffered a first round exit. This past year, Duke mate the Elite 8 but were upset by rival NC State, which was an especially disappointing loss. Scheyer has always been a strong recruiter, and that has not changed since taking over as head coach of the Blue Devils.

This year’s Duke team has a lot of talent as a result of the recruiting that Scheyer has done, and so the expectations are understandably high. The fanbase is ready for another deep run in march, perhaps to the Final Four or even winning a national title. The talent is there, but there are other strong teams ahead of Duke in the preseason AP Poll that should be contending with them.

Given that Flagg is a likely one-and-done, there will be a lot of pressure on Scheyer to maximize winning this year with perhaps a generational college player. It will be an interesting year for Duke, with expectations through the roof, as per usual.

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